Paris Fashion Week: Hermes autumn/winter 2013

Tackiness? French women don't get that. What they do get - if they have the means to outfit themselves in the clothes of Hermès designer Christophe Lemaire - is an utterly sophisticated uniform for the 21st century.

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Lemaire's Hermès heroines wandered the long, narrow library of Lycee Henri IV in high-waisted skirts in neutral-toned leather, ribbed knitwear and blankety, leather and gold-buckled cloaks or duffles. This lent them the appearance of young, bookish bluestockings - an Hermès-tinted version of Sylvia Plath, minus the agony and with perfect dentistry. Gold tie-pins attached to (tieless), leather-piped mannish shirts and more gold, this time fringing ceramic bracelets, added a subtle flash of flushness. So too, naturally, did the bags; as soberly Puritan in shape as the Scandinavian furniture that scattered the room, but appointed in the finest calfskin and croc at the company's disposal.

Photo: Vladimir Potop

Looks particularly worth withdrawing from Hermes' womenswear roster included an oversized mannish suit in the deepest, darkest green with one lapel worn pulled forward and a long, slim black dress cut upon from shoulder to ankle with a slashy sharp fold of white. This was not a shouty collection - a long sleeveless knit dress with nubbly stitches in red, white, blue and black plus some restrained silk print blouses were as razzy as it got - but it was compellingly enigmatic one.

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